Difficulty spike at Depot A makes this game...not fun to play now

[laagamer]

Look, I have I have to reload the game 5 times to beat an encounter, even after I've purchased acid armor and have been following online advice, then this just kinda isn't fun.

I find myself turning the game off and playing something else.

I really like the world building here, but the combat balance is just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful.

For a first time player, I'm finding it tough to want to keep going. I could restart on easy I suppose, but I don't wanna have to slog through 20 hours again.

So...the game just kinda stops getting played.

[Exodus Of Sound]

Depot A really is quite an increase in difficulty compared to the other areas you've faced so far. Have you tried bear traps and molotovs? They always carry my characters through Depot A if I can't beat the muties with my primary fighting style.

[razvedchiki]

either use stealth to bypass the doggos and muties (since you need to get an item to complete depot a).
or by 15 molotov coctails/caltroops/traps get behind a door and kill everything.

[Szarekh the Silent King]

Depot A is kind of a test for a player. If he couldn't pass it, well, something wrong with your character build. And it's early enough for you to restart you playthrough. Because the last location is the most challenging - large number of flawed characters can't pass it. But still Depot A may help new players to understand their characters flaws. I think that would be much much more frustrating to not have Depot A challenge and hit a stone wall with your face right near the end of a game.

[John McClane]

make sure you have explored the other areas first

[Darbie]

I find Depot A easier to far than some of the other places i've been. Maybe I went the wrong way too far :)

[Sabin Stargem]

It doesn't get better. The game mechanics are built to maximize tedium. Aside from the occasional oasis of dialogue, the game is unfair or plodding, and often pulls a "gotcha!" on you.


The Faceless? It isn't telegraphed that peace is possible, they turn on you if you infiltrate the Tchorists, they just plain suck.

Rail Crossing? You can't use dialogue to peacefully resolve the quest without losing the Free Drones quest line.

Foundry? If you accept the murder quest from the lady, you can't go back to the guy and take his offer too. Nothing to be done about making the air healthier, either.

Ray? You can't break the cameras to safely steal a boat, even though no one can check up on you. People automatically know about your thievery and attempted assassinations, even in the best of conditions.

University? You can't save Eidein nor the rest of the people there. Just take the elevator and skip the questing, it would save hours.

The Juice? An extensive quest line that keeps you tied up, preventing you from using fast travel until you manage to get a bottle of oil. The juice saves you hours of travel, but it also costs hours to get in the first place.

Your house? Just a money sink. It doesn't even help against the elite agent who wants Acorn, he just bypasses the security outright. Cameras, turrets, bots, they only work against the player.

Deep Caverns? Slog personafied. You can't activate the elevator early to get back to civilization, there is no real way to save Lora Baker if you fight the Faceless, IRIS's plot dead ends, and a puzzle that doesn't let you use your character's INT or skills to solve.

Expedition? A tight time limit, killing off the factions takes hours apiece, you can't cut the shadowlith with your mysterious disc, another puzzle that demands player intelligence over character ability, a McGuffin that does nothing.

You aren't encouraged to craft - too many individual item levels, the weight system prevents you from quickly moving loot back to base, the descriptions of the weapon models doesn't tell you why a Hornet is different from a Chimera...

The freed test subjects can't be directed to join with the Mutie community in the Black Sea, or telling the mutants all about their potential comrades.


Six. Rail. Roading. SIX.


This game simply isn't rewarding, and feels like many possibilities are never realized.

My recommendation is to play a game that is willing to reward you for your efforts.

[mojave_wastelander]

This is a classic CRPG with all its positives and negatives. If you find min-maxing or being forced to learn game mechanics tedious this is certainly not your type of game. Reload 5 times to beat encounter is normal as it implies is you first playthrough and you're not expected to be godlike before every encounter and have plenty room for mistakes. Is an indie game in a niche genre so its difficulty is what people like about it.

Originally posted by Sabin Stargem:

You aren't encouraged to craft - too many individual item levels, the weight system prevents you from quickly moving loot back to base, the descriptions of the weapon models doesn't tell you why a Hornet is different from a Chimera...

Not sure what game you're playing but crafted items are much better and more expensive than ones you can buy and in many cases is the only reliable way to get what your build needs. E.g. you will not easily find a metathermics psyband with crit increase and psi cost decrease and even if you're very lucky the price for it will be unreasonably high. Also in general you move around craft parts then craft before needing to sell anything at higher price or if crafted items are lighter than it's parts (e.g. medical items). Always keep a stack of ampules and the like and process organs as you get them, then you'll have no issue with carrying loot around, now if you can't process organs because you're not investing in medical just do pick them they don't sell for that much anyway. Cheap armors you loot are better to be scrapped and then made into patch kits that are lightweight and sell for a lot.
The game rewards you if you take the time to learn its rules otherwise it is sure tedious.

[.//slayer]

It doesn't get better. The game mechanics are built to maximize tedium. Aside from the occasional oasis of dialogue, the game is unfair or plodding, and often pulls a "gotcha!" on you.

A lot of your points are fair, but they are also minor, insignificant. Yes, the dialogues are mostly nothing to brag about, and it shows that they were written by a lone and busy programmer, not a renowned writer. Yet, there are still branching options and attempts at depicting characters, not to mention that Expeditions got much better in this department, and the Ferryman's dialogues are easily the crowning jewel of the whole experience.

Crafting is massively powerful, like said above.

But none of that even matters all that much, because at its core, Underrail is a game about combat and progression, and these are done splendidly. There are interesting perks, specializations, stat synergies, and now even veteran levels to try out. There's gear with unique effects. There's about 200 hours worth of world to explore, with challenging and clever encounters along the way. The enemy variety and composition is decent enough to keep you on your toes. In this area, Underrail clearly excels.

[Detective Costeau]

I think a big part of the problem is that Underrail often gets compared to the old Fallout games- I own UR because Steam recommended it to me because I own Fallout 1 and 2, even- and it's not a good comparison at all.
Basically, the only real point of similarity is that they're both isometric turn-based games. There's just not the emphasis on story or writing here that there is in a lot of RPGs- for example, there's a character in SGS who is one of the ruling council, gives you some trade documents for a quest, and I literally can't even remember their name, much less a single character trait, because the writing for every character is very samey- basically every character speaks in the same 'voice.' Whoever said it feels written by one programmer rather than a writer is spot-on.
What UR is about is the combat challenges. Basically the whole point of the game is mechanics, combat, build construction, combat tactics and so on. That's the meat of the game.
If you don't like reloading combat encounters to figure out a good approach to them, then honestly, no, the game isn't going to get better, because that's like asking if Dark Souls is going to 'get better' because you have to retry most bosses several times to win. It isn't- them being hard is the whole point. That might mean UR isn't really the game for you if you don't like that- it's a weird indie game that's not going to be everyone's thing.
Also, echoing the comment that saying crafting is discouraged is just flat out wrong. Crafting is so useful and powerful I literally won't make a character that can't do it. The problems with carry weight are real until you figure out that 99% of the trash you find is just that- trash you don't need.
If an item isn't valuable and you can't use it to build something, leave it on the floor and move on.
If only there were some indication in-game that you've searched containers even if they aren't empty- as it is I loot everything then leave little piles of useless crap at zone transitions so I don't get weighed down.

[Helios]

Depot A is a build check, if your build can't hack it then it won't for the rest of the game (unless you're building a late bloomer on purpose.) The game opens up a bit after Depot A as well.

Underrail is about build optimization. No one character can ever "do it all," and certain encounters that are trivial to one build will be difficult for another. Certain builds are better than others, and some are just terrible. But that also means there's some satisfaction to seeing a good build come into its own.

[laagamer]

Originally posted by Helios:

Depot A is a build check, if your build can't hack it then it won't for the rest of the game (unless you're building a late bloomer on purpose.) The game opens up a bit after Depot A as well.

Underrail is about build optimization. No one character can ever "do it all," and certain encounters that are trivial to one build will be difficult for another. Certain builds are better than others, and some are just terrible. But that also means there's some satisfaction to seeing a good build come into its own.

ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
ICARUS FOUND YOU!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!!

Just kidding, ya, the game has seriously opened up. I'm honestly lost.